35 gallons of blood saves mom's life after she gives birth

By Don Finley

Updated
11:57 pm CDT, Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Dustin, left, and Gina Walker, talk Wednesday April 11, 2012 at University Hospital about the transfusion of an unprecedented 540 units of blood products -- about 35 gallons -- Gina needed during an eight hour surgery due to complications from the birth of their daughter, Addison.

Dustin, left, and Gina Walker, talk Wednesday April 11, 2012 at University Hospital about the transfusion of an unprecedented 540 units of blood products -- about 35 gallons -- Gina needed during an eight hour

Dustin, left, and Gina Walker, talk Wednesday April 11, 2012 at University Hospital about the transfusion of an unprecedented 540 units of blood products -- about 35 gallons -- Gina needed during an eight hour surgery due to complications from the birth of their daughter, Addison.

Dustin, left, and Gina Walker, talk Wednesday April 11, 2012 at University Hospital about the transfusion of an unprecedented 540 units of blood products -- about 35 gallons -- Gina needed during an eight hour

Gina Walker knew her fifth baby was going to be a complicated delivery. But only when she awoke several days later did she learn just how complicated.

To save her life throughout a massive and seemingly unstoppable hemorrhage, doctors pumped an astonishing 540 units of blood and blood products into Walker — more than 35 gallons. The average adult contains about 1.3 gallons.

“Up until Gina's surgery, we have not ever transfused that much blood to a patient,” said Sherrie Warner, who oversees the blood bank at University Hospital. Warner said the hospital had set aside 30 units of B-positive blood before Walker's surgery as a precaution.

Wednesday, almost two months after she almost died in labor, Walker, her husband and healthy baby daughter Addison returned to University Hospital to thank the huge medical team that stepped in to help — including dozens of employees, medical students and residents who donated blood in response.

Nearly everyone involved in the birth described the outcome as a miracle.

Walker, 31, suffered from a rare complication known as placenta percreta. In her case, the placenta — the lifeline between fetus and mother — invaded both the mother's bladder and major blood vessels along the uterine wall.

The surgical delivery took place the day after Valentine's Day. Baby Addison's delivery went well. But as Parker and his colleagues began a hysterectomy, a necessity because of the complication, “we encountered catastrophic hemorrhage,” he said.

Trauma surgeons with more experience in major blood loss were called in to assist. So was Dr. Kevin Hall, chief of gynecological oncology at the health science center, who also has expertise in bleeding in pregnancy.

“One of the difficulties with losing a lot of blood is you also lose clotting factors when you lose blood,” Hall said. “And for a brief period we were able to get the hemorrhage under control enough to complete the operation we intended to do. And then just as we were close to the completion of that operation, she started to bleed massively again.”

Down in the blood bank, Warner had called in every unit of type B blood in the city, and had started sending up type O as well — which can also be safely used. At the same time, word of mouth had spread through the hospital and employees, along with friends and family of the patient, were lined up to donate — 163 donors in all.

“We never stopped. We knew it was an OB patient, and there was a baby involved,” Warner said, breaking into tears at the memory. “We care about all of our patients, but this was special. As that blood kept going out, I remember praying that she had to make it. As it just kept going and going, and coming in and coming in. It was miraculous.”

Out in the hallway, husband Dustin Walker grew more and more worried as what had been touted as a three- or four-hour operation stretched into eight.

“Come about the sixth hour, after I watched cooler after cooler after cooler with my wife's name on it, full of blood, going up and down the hallways, I started getting worried,” he said. “I think I requested to talk to Dr. Parker six or seven times in the middle of the whole thing, just so I could find out what was going on.”

Parker said as amazing as it is that Walker survived, it's equally amazing that she survived without major complications.

In the aftermath of receiving massive amounts of blood, patients are at risk for strokes, blood clots in the limbs or lungs and even paralysis. Walker's only lingering complication is blurry vision in her left eye.

“I know that a true miracle has happened,” Walker said, glancing at her squirming baby. “She's feisty and a fighter. She's tough and strong-willed already.”